Posts Tagged ‘Audience’

How Facebook Can Change Your Business

February 18th, 2012 webkriti

More than 500 million people use Facebook today.  Of those, over 250 million users log in and update their Facebook pages or statuses more than once a month. This social networking channel has gained worldwide acceptance as the way to communicate with like-minded people. What does that mean for entrepreneurs?  Small business owners who understand the value of entering this dynamic, interactive environment have much to gain.

Facebook successfully personalized the online experience. Everyone with a Facebook account can easily claim a small piece of cyberspace to express likes, dislikes, inspirations, aspirations, beliefs and values.  Where else can a marketer find so much self-disclosed information about potential customers?  If you have defined your niche and you know your customers, then you can use your Facebook business page to build your network and reach your audience.

Ads and Targeting Ability

Facebook allows you to create ads specifically targeting its users based on their profile information.  Although these ads are short — 25 characters in the headline and 135 characters in the body — there is additional room for your website’s URL.  After you have written your ad, you can choose who will see it based on location, age, likes and interests.  The more choices you add to the likes and interests category, the more narrowly you define your audience.

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Writing a Business Plan – 8 Ways to Catch the New Wave

December 19th, 2011 admin

Writing a business plan can be pretty tedious. There’s the cover, the table of contents, some 20-25 pages of content and the back cover.

The innards are typically long paragraphs punctuated with bold font sprinkled hither and yon.

And it’s all a big bore.

There’s a reason for this. The “how to write business plans” books are classics. That means they are old. They were all written pre-internet. And that’s an important consideration in capturing and holding an audience.

The writing style of the internet has changed the way people think. And the way they read.

For instance, glance through this web site, or most any other successful web site, and you will see some real differences in style and layout, such as:

1. Short Paragraphs. Computer monitors don’t have the tight resolution of a printed page, so our eyes get tired. To help us focus, good writers use shorter paragraphs.

2. Bulleted Lists. But sometimes there is still a great deal to be communicated, so bulleted lists have become quite popular (or indented lists).

3. Block Indents. Block indents give visual variety, so your eyes don’t get so tired and I can hold your attention a bit longer.

4. Left Align. In the old days, nearly all paragraphs were indented five spaces. No more.

5. Judicious Use of Color.

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How to Select the Perfect Briefcase for Work

November 3rd, 2011 webkriti


Even though it may not seem that important in the long run, a sense of style is essential when dealing with the workplace, and that includes the kind of briefcase you carry.  Of course, the specifics of the job will dictate the kind of briefcase you buy, whether you are working in a high pressure, Madison Avenue office, as a professor at a university, or if you are on the road and spend most of your time in your vehicle.

 

They say that clothes make the man (or woman).  This is true of accessories like your briefcase.  A sleek, well-maintained briefcase can affect your mood or the way that you carry yourself.  If you are running late or simply having a terrible morning, recall how powerful and official you feel with that special briefcase you selected and you may find the clouds are clearing up.

 

A black leather briefcase is classic and are probably what you think of when considering successful business people you have imagined or encountered.  While it is important to remember that times are changing, you must always remember that the choice is yours.  What does your briefcase say about you?  To your boss?  Prospective clients?  Your audience?

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10 Tips for Productive Meetings

October 13th, 2011 webkriti

Everyone has been in those meetings where you wonder why a meeting was necessary at all. Not only are those meetings unproductive, they are also harmful to your company. Employees may start to wonder if the company values their time, if the company is headed in the right direction, and even if they want to keep working for the company.

Here are ten tips on how to avoid time-wasting and ambition-killing meetings.

Invite only the necessary people

It isn’t usually necessary to invite the head custodian to a meeting about your company’s next big public relations campaign. In fact, I dare say that it is almost never necessary. If you wanted to have an audience watch you perform, you should have gone into acting. Don’t invite people without a clear purpose for their presence.

Let people know beforehand

Let people know ahead of time when each meeting is going to be. People often plan out their time carefully so they can achieve the goals they set for each day. Spur-of-the-moment meetings will often be necessary, depending on what business you’re in, but they should not be the norm.

Allow for group discussion

Making employees part of the conversation is not only a way to generate good ideas, it is an excellent way to connect employees to the bigger picture.

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Money Saving Strategies for Small Businesses

June 1st, 2011 admin

When running a small business, it is important to keep your expenses at a minimum. This can sometimes be difficult, depending on the type of business, as we get into the usual routine of purchasing, staffing, and more. By actively pursuing options to cut back on costs, you will discover that you have more money to help grow and expand your business.

Follow these tips to help you save money for your business.

A) Don’t Waste Time

This one is pretty simple, but commonly overlooked. Companies often lose a lot of money simply because they are wasting time. This particularly includes staffing and utilities. Having hourly paid employees slacking on their work, or running out of work to do, could cost a lot of money each year. While laying off hourly staff members just to save money is never a good idea for a small business, instead let them go home early if there is no more work to do.

Also make sure when your business closes for the day that all the lights are turned off and the thermostat is set at room temperature. The most costs for small businesses rack up when nobody is in, and those can be minimized by routinely checking the lights and thermostat.

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How to Respond to Business Complaints

May 18th, 2011 admin

Businesses have always had to deal with complaints. However, the advent of YouTube, Facebook and other social media websites have made it possible for any negative review to spread through a business’ target market like wildfire. Now, businesses have to step up their efforts to address dissatisfied customers and keep the others from posting negative reviews.

It is crucial that businesses handle these mishaps immediately. Waiting for a post to go viral will result in questions from customers and lead to the destruction of a hard-earned reputation, all of which can be easily avoided. Companies should look at these reviews as opportunities to engage with customers and proactively work towards solving their problems.

Respond Right Away

This advice could not be emphasized enough. The rationale behind it is simple too. When a business responds to a situation promptly, customers will naturally think that the company is paying attention to its clients and is eager to turn things around. Sometimes, it’s not that people want to have an error rectified right away. The best way to respond is to post a courteous reply but make the details of how you intend to fix the situation vague. Instead, deal with the customer directly and privately through phone or email. This approach uproots the problem from the public arena.

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Bring Attention to Your Blog and Make the Most of It

April 24th, 2010 admin

With the introduction of social sharing tools on Toolbox.com, you have the power to reach millions of individuals worldwide and direct them to your blog. Sounds great, right? The question is: How are you going to use this attention to grow your blog? Here are a few tips:

  • Send consistent messaging about your blog entries through social networks and sites (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumblUpon, etc). This includes the formatting of your messages (i.e. dashes, commas, capitalization, hash tags, etc.), the voice of your messages (first, second, or third-person), and the style of your messages (humorous, serious, political, etc.).
  • Use key terms. Include words like “Finance, HR, or IT” when sharing your blog entries with others. This will increase the SEO value of your blog. The stronger your SEO, the larger your blog audience will become.
  • Include the link to your blog. As simple as it may seem, sometimes people forget or delete the link to their blog, only including the blog title. Make sure to include your blog’s link so that users can go directly to your blog!
  • Remember your audience. What value does your message convey to readers? Are you providing them an angle to frame the context of your blog? Why should they read your entry?

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How To Write Niche Articles

October 23rd, 2009 admin

Definition: Substantive Articles – Articles that contribute to your niche. These include suggestions, ideas, sources of information, insights into the topic and almost anything that will stir discussion.
Your readers should want more! They should comment on your article and offer you suggestions for more articles. If you’re getting this already, you know the meaning of substantive … Keep up the good work!

If you’re not having this dynamic conversation with your readers, then here are some tips that will help you achieve this:

  • It’s Not OK to be Short and Sweet – Saying something is a cool idea without adding the WHY does nothing for the reader. This is not quality – this is easy writing. Your readers will see right through it. Good writing takes hard work and research.
  • Relate Yourself to Your Work – Readers want to know how this has affected you and why it works. Add YOU to the topic by offering tips and further exploring why the tip works. People want MEAT. They want to know they can trust you. You’re the expert, so show them you are. Give them the MEAT.
  • Make Connections with Your Audience – Do your research and ask them what they want. Then deliver this value in articles. This is worthwhile stuff.

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What Are The Top 3 Most Important Qualities When Starting A New Business Relationship?

September 4th, 2009 admin

I think the three most important qualities every small business person should exhibit when starting a new business relationship are the following:

1. Transparency …. Each party must be clear about why they are contacting one another, meaning what do they hope to get out of this relationship? Also, be forthright in defining the relationship and the terms associated with it.

2. Follow through …. When you say you’ll deliver something, do it on-time or before the agreed upon deadline.

3. Respect …. Acknowledge the time and energy that each party is giving to the relationship. So for instance, don’t ask for things to be delivered on one date and then not review them or provide feedback for weeks. Or don’t show up late to meetings. Respect one another’s time.

To elaborate even further …..

1. LISTENING – more business relationships are botched because the parties are not listening to one another. New business relationships involve people and in order to earn respect you must exhibit the behaviors that show you care about your audience. Filter out all unnecessary interruptions, restate what you have heard and seek public positive feedback from the audience.

2.

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Feed Google Alerts Into Your Twitter Account

August 25th, 2009 admin

This may not be suitable for everyone!…and it may take some time and testing to set up
Google alerts with the right keywords, so that the Google alerts feed relevant
information into your twitter account for your twitter audience.
This process will take 3 different web sites (tools).
http://twitterfeed.com/ – http://bit.ly/ – Google alerts (your account)

Open all 3 in a different window.
You obviously will need a Google and a twitter account for this.
Go to your Google account and click on Google alerts. Enter your Search terms.
I leave it on comprehensive, but you may want to change that later. After some time check
your twitter account and see if the Google alerts are what your “followers” may want to
read about. You can also try different keywords for the alerts until it fits your needs.
Click create alert.
On the next page find your alert and click edit. On the drop down menu change this from
email to feed and click save. This changes the Google alerts into a RSS feed and later it will
be feeding directly into your twitter account as “tweets”. You can also preview in the
Google reader to see what the feeds will look like. Modify your search terms if it is not
what you want.
Click on the feed.

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Start using Twitter. Its easy.

August 15th, 2009 admin

Twitter is also a great way to make yourself and your web presence more visible to a
broader audience in your niche, helps you find link exchange opportunities, and get to know other
interesting people.
Every time you “tweet” (send a message of a 140 characters) on twitter you will get an
average response (a user clicking on a link in your tweet) of about 2% or 2 clicks per
100. These numbers may be slightly different for you.

Sign Up With Twitter

Sign up with Twitter @ http://twitter.com/

-Use a user name that includes your niche keyword preferably.
-click settings and give yourself a name. I used mydomain.com

-More Info URL: URL to your website, blog or other site.
-One Line Bio: be descriptive and interesting (you only have 140 characters)

-Location: this should be obvious

-Click on the pictures tab and upload a picture of your pretty self preferably.
-Click the design tab and play around with it a little bit. Upload a background image if
you like. Make it look a little different than standard look.
-Click the notices tab. Uncheck it all if you do not want emails send to your email
account. I unchecked it all since I don’t need more emails. I have enough of those
already.
Are you happy with the look of it? If not you can come back later and change it.

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Drive Traffic to your site using Twitter

August 11th, 2009 admin

These are a few ways that I use to drive traffic to my site from Twitter:

1. I tweet with links to my pages. I tweet (auto tweet with tweetlater.com) about every 2 hours 1 tweet, 24/7. You have to find what works best for your audience.
2. Every so often I upload an image to Twitpic.com and people click on my Home Page link on twitpic. Twitpic uploads a link to the image and your text as a tweet to twitter.
3. Every time I update my site my SBI blog is being updated and the RSS feed is “tweeting” for me.

I also have a “ask a question” content 2.0 page and ask people to ask me questions. Once in a while someone asks a question and when I answer my blog is updated and the RSS feed automatically tweets it for me. (This may take minutes or a few hours but it will appear).
I also ask for reviews and once in a while I receive a submission. That can only grow the more followers I have.

If your auto follow from twollo.com (and also the auto follow from tweetlater should be checked so that you auto follow everyone who follows you)
doesn’t provide enough members to follow, use more keywords.

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